


Anniversary

by jonesyslug



Series: I Wanna Get Better! [2]
Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, Fuck Stephen King, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2020-11-08 07:15:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20831489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonesyslug/pseuds/jonesyslug
Summary: One year after the death of It, everyone makes good on their second big promise to Stan- to meet up and interrupt Mike's peaceful Floridian life.(EDIT: OCT 12: this is a multichapter fic now! Because I can not resist writing in this setting! Keep your eyes peeled for updates, kids!)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome Back! This is the sequel to Famous Uris Promise, but that isn't required reading. Jump on into the party!

The doorbell rang. Mike licked some cake batter off his thumb and smiled as he headed out of the kitchen. 

"Coming!" He called out, his voice echoing through the open floorplan of the house; Rooms that were only technically rooms, separated by function rather than physical walls. 

He opened the door. Richie and Eddie were standing there. 

"Hey, guys!" Mike said brightly. Richie leaned in and hugged him. Eddie politely declined a hug, and assured Mike he'd hug him after he showered. 

Richie looked a genuine mess, sloppier than usual. His hair was all matted from sleep and sticking up on one side. Eddie, of course, looked fine, perfectly ironed-_ did he change right before he got here?- _and completely over everything. 

"Sorry we're late. We had to stop at the pharmacy." Richie said, pointing his thumb at the white paper bags Eddie was clutching to his chest. 

Eddie sighed indignantly. 

"Actually, you're the first ones here!" 

Richie was taken aback. "Seriously?" 

"See, I told you we had time." Eddie huffed, walking over the threshold, huge rollercase behind him. Mike could hardly believe Eddie had the strength to pull the thing. 

Richie shrugged into the house, adjusting the strap of his duffle bag. 

"This is a nice place, Mike." Eddie offered, nicely enough, but his mind was clearly on other things. He let go of his suitcase and dropped the paper bags onto the glass table in front of Mike's couch. He sorted through them, found the right one, and ripped it open. It was an inhaler. He took a huge gasp of air through it, then sighed out with his eyes closed, like he was trying to get himself together. 

Mike noticed there was a bag left on the front stoop, and picked it up for them. He snuck up behind Richie as Eddie took another puff on his inhaler. 

"So he's still…" Mike whispered.

Richie shrugged. "We're working on it." 

Mike nodded. 

Eddie was now busy covering his hands and forearms in antibacterial gel. 

Richie took a step towards him. "Sweetie, why don't you just go take a shower, it'll calm you down." 

"Mike, do you know how filthy planes are?" Eddie asked, ignoring Richie. 

"They're like little flying incubators for germs, and _ he _ made me get on one." 

Richie laughed. "This guy wanted to drive here. From LA." Richie said, rolling his eyes. 

"Hey, I'm a good driver! I drive for a living! It would have been fine!" 

Richie put his hand on Eddie's cheek. "Eds, if we drove here, we would have had to stay in motels. Plural." 

Eddie convulsed slightly, then sighed. "Okay. Okay!" He said, throwing his hands up. "You got me! You win. I didn't think about that." 

"It's okay, Eddie." Richie said, smoothing his hair back and kissing him on the forehead. 

Eddie actually calmed down. Richie had managed to calm Eddie down? Mike had never seen that happen. 

"Now," Richie said, clapping his hands as loud as he could -_ there's my Richie- _"where can my sweet, tiny little beau take a shower?" 

"You better take one too, Richie. You look like shit." 

"Don't make me get in there with you." Richie said, playfully. 

Eddie turned beet red. "Jesus, Richie, Mike is in the room." 

Mike laughed. "It's fine, it's fine, Eddie." He said, waving his hand dismissively. "Come on upstairs, I'll show you your room." 

The stairs opened up into a long hallway with thick, dark purple carpet and textured beige walls. All of the doorways were rounded off at the top. 

"Christ, Mike, is this an Airbnb?" Richie asked, as he led them down the hall. Mike laughed. 

"Yeah, sometimes. If I feel like going to Miami or something…" 

"This place is fucking huge, dude!" Richie exclaimed, glancing around as Mike opened the door to their room for them. 

"Well… I knew I was going to have a lot of guests before I ever even bought it. _ 'Huge' _ was the main thing I looked for in a house." 

The room was beautiful and decorated in varying shades of blue. Mike figured it'd be a good room for Richie and Eddie because he called it The Calm Down Room (though he was absolutely not going to tell them that.). He often liked to come up there to read, because it had a window seat, a beautiful view of the ocean, and a peaceful aura. 

Eddie placed all his things on the left side of the bed, closest to the en suite, and Richie dumped his duffle bag onto the floor on the right side. 

"Whose is this?" Mike asked, offering the small suitcase towards Richie. 

"That's mine!" Eddie called, coming over to take it out of his hands. "Thanks, Mike." 

Eddie shuffled around in his bags for a moment, then quickly disappeared into the bathroom. Richie flopped onto the bed. 

Mike smiled at him. "I'll leave you to it, then." He said, tapping the side of his nose, as he backed towards the door. 

Richie reached a hand out towards him. "Nah, man, I can't bother him. He's on a mission right now." Richie said with a laugh as he sat up. He kicked off his shoes. "I'll come with ya." 

"You any good at baking?" Mike asked as he led him out the door. 

"Absolutely not!" Richie said, enthusiastically, as he followed. 

Soon enough, the cake batter was ready and in the oven, almost entirely without the help of Richie, who hadn't been lying and mostly made jokes as though Mike were on _ Iron Chef _ and got flour everywhere. 

He looked funny in Mike's apron, an oven mitt on each hand, absolutely streaked with flour, and a proud expression on his face though his only actual contribution had been putting the cake in the oven. 

The doorbell rang again. "I'll get it!" Richie called out, in a deep voice, like a superhero declaring to save the day. Mike laughed and ran after him. "Don't, what if it's one of my neighbors? You're going to scare them!" 

They made a mad scramble for the door, laughing like kids. Richie got there first but couldn't manage to turn the knob in the oven mitts, so Mike elbowed him out of the way and opened the door, out of breath but beaming. 

"Hey!" It was Stan and Patricia, who looked significantly less worn down than Richie and Eddie had. A flight from Atlanta to the Florida panhandle was only a ginger ale and and half a movie, though. Whereas from LA… Mike figured about 8 tiny bottles of rum for Richie and at least one movie from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. A director's cut, most likely, with time to nap, after. Eddie would have been asleep from the beginning of the flight, on something strong enough to get him anywhere near a plane in the first place. 

Stan gave Mike a big smile, and was about to say something, when Richie popped over Mike's shoulder. 

"Stan the Man! What's with the pushbroom?" He asked, eyeing Stan's moustache. 

Patti laughed. "_ I _like it." She said, grabbing Stan's chin and giving him a peck on the cheek. 

Stan turned a little pink and smiled at his wife. 

"Well, aren't you just the cutest thing in the _ world!" _Richie said, in earnest, grabbing Patti's hands and pulling her into the house. 

"I'm Richie Tozier," he said, grandly, shaking an oven mitt off and letting it hit the floor. He gestured to himself, hand on his chest, and put his other arm around Patti's shoulder. "I've known Stan since he was in diapers, I can tell you any embarrassing thing you want to know, just say the word." 

Patti giggled and Richie instantly decided that he liked her very much. 

Mike and Stan looked at each other and laughed. Stan picked up Patti's suitcase and shuffled into the house. 

"This place is gorgeous, Mike." He said, looking out the glass doors towards the beach. 

"Yeah, it does the job." Mike said, grinning. "Come on, I'll show you where your room is." 

Stan looked over and saw that Patti was sitting on the couch, happily chatting away with Richie. She doubled over laughing and slapped her knee. 

"Eh, I'll show her the room when she needs it." Stan said, nodding his head towards the stairs. Mike nodded and showed Stan to his room. 

Shortly after, Eddie came down the stairs, fully dressed in his usual attire, but with a towel around his shoulders. He heard someone laughing, and the small, stuttered chuckles that meant Richie was particularly pleased with himself. 

When Eddie finally came around and saw them, he sighed. 

"You're a _ mess!" _

Patti managed to quiet her laughter and looked up at Eddie. 

"Mmhmm, a hot mess, and I'm all yours." Richie said, taking Eddie's hands and standing. He kissed Eddie on the forehead.

"You're gonna get flour all over me, Rich." Eddie said, but he didn't sound mad. In fact, he laughed a little bit. 

Richie turned, throwing an arm over Eddie's shoulders. 

"Patricia Uris, this is my darling little Eddie Spaghetti." He said, squeezing Eddie's cheeks together. Eddie slapped his hand away. 

"That hurt, jackass!" 

Patti was giggling. Eddie cracked a grin at her. He shrugged out from under Richie's arm and pushed him towards the stairs. "Go take a shower, you're disgusting!" 

"You _ love _it!" Richie said, wiping some flour off his face so he could rub it on Eddie's cheek. 

"Don't you _ dare!" _Eddie said, ducking and pushing Richie harder. 

"Okay, I'm going, I'm going! Play nice with Patti Cakes!" He called, jogging up the stairs. 

Eddie turned and gave her a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry he already gave you a horrible nickname," he said, making his way to the living room. "But if it's any consolation, that means he likes you. I'm Eddie Kaspbrak." He said, holding out his hand.

"I'm Patti, I'm Stan's wife." 

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Patti, I've heard a lot about you." He said, taking a seat in the chair next to the couch. 

"Oh! Really?" She sounded genuinely surprised.

"Sure, Stan and I talk about once a week. I get even more news second-hand from Richie." 

Patti blushed a little. "That's sweet that you all keep in touch, now." 

"Don't worry about it, Patti, everything Stan has to say about you is an absolutely glowing review." 

Patti smiled widely. "That's nice to hear. I don't know that a lot of husbands are like that about their wives." 

"Well, Stan's always been one to just tell it like it is. He's over the moon about you." 

"Oh, you and Richie flatter me too much." She said, blushing and looking at her hands. 

She cleared her throat. "How are you liking LA? Must be a big change after living north east." 

"Yeah…" Eddie said with a sigh. "It's hectic, but after New York, I could deal with anything." He turned his head a little and seemed to be talking to himself. "Actually, I'm not even sure how I dealt with New York…" he shook his head and looked back at Patti. 

"It's nice though, I run a limo service now. Meet a lot of interesting people that way."

"Oh, wow, that sounds like a really interesting change of pace from… it was something with insurance, wasn't it?" 

Eddie laughed. "Yeah, something with insurance. How's publishing?" 

Patti smiled. "Actually, Bill Denebr- well, Bill just moved his contract, and he's going to be publishing with my company now!" 

"Oh, wow. Everything's becoming uh," Eddie drew a circle with his fingers. "Cyclical." 

They heard footsteps coming down the stairs and laughter. They looked up and Stan was hanging off Mike's shoulder to hold himself up. He wiped a tear from his eye and tried to catch his breath, collapsing next to Patti. He nuzzled his nose against her cheek. 

"Eddie, you better not be boring her to death with-" 

Eddie was about to snap something at Stan, not even sure what he was defending himself against yet, but a bell started to buzz in the kitchen, and at nearly the same time, the doorbell rang. 

"Ah, the cake!" Mike exclaimed, looking torn between the kitchen and the front door. 

"I've got it, Mike." Eddie said, standing and picking the oven mitts up off the floor. 

"Thanks, Eds." Mike said, rushing past him towards the front door.

It was Bill and Audra Denebrough, looking intensely at ease and presenting a large basket full of all manner of things, most prominently, an expensive bottle of champagne. 

"Mike Hanlon!" Bill called happily, shoving the basket into his arms, then giving him a kiss on the cheek. "This is my wife, Audra." 

Audra gave Mike a very posh air kiss on each cheek. "Thank you so much for inviting us to your lovely home!" Audra said, with a gorgeous smile.

"Well, to be honest, I only invited Bill so I could have a movie star in my house." Mike said, winking at her. She chuckled and let Bill pull her gently inside by the hand. Their driver came and deposited their bags right inside the front door of the house. 

"Bill!" Stan called from the couch, standing to hug him. 

"Hey, Stan." He said, wrapping his free arm around Stan's neck. "This is Audra." He said, pulling back and motioning to his wife. 

"This is Patti." Stan said, about to turn and point to her, but she'd already appeared at his side. 

"It's so nice to meet the two of you." Patti said, shaking their hands. Audra pulled her into a hug instead. 

"Hey, we've got to stick together, Patti, we're the only ones who aren't from Maine." 

Patti laughed and nodded. 

Eddie walked back into the room. "The cake is on the cooling rack, Mike." 

"You are _ much _more helpful in the kitchen than Richie." Mike laughed. 

"I know. Every time it's his turn for dinner, he alternates between Door Dash and Uber Eats." Eddie said, with slight exasperation.

Then his eyes lit on Bill and Audra. They were basically glowing. They had become the focal point of the room. Their flight had been even longer than Richie and Eddie's, but Mike had to assume they took first class, with how effortless and rested they looked. 

"Bill! Audra! Nice to see you again!" Eddie said, walking into the fold for hugs. 

"Oh, you've met Audra before?" Stan asked. 

"Yeah, a few months back, she and Bill were in LA for a minute, and they took Rich and me out to dinner." 

Someone was bounding down the stairs, recklessly. 

"Speak of the devil…" Eddie said, with an eye roll. 

Richie appeared at the bottom of the stairs in a bathrobe. 

"Audra, my darling! And you've brought Bill as well, how generous of you!" 

Eddie gave him a pointed look.

"_ Please _ tell me you have something on under that." 

Richie feigned offense, bunching up the collar of the robe. "My stars and stripes, the implications of your _ mind, _young man!" He called in his best southern bell accent. Eddie marched over to push him back up the stairs. 

"Underwear, at least?" 

"That's for me to know, and you too find out!" Richie said, ripping the sash apart. 

"Richie, _ don't!" _

There was a moment of total silence as the robe dropped to the floor. Richie stood there, grinning, dressed in a tank top and onion skin shorts. 

Eddie dropped his head onto Richie's chest as Richie howled with laughter. 

"You're such a jackass!" Eddie said, beating him on the chest. 

"Trashmouth, get over here!" Bill called. When Richie was within reach, Bill pulled him down into a noogie. 

"Can't you give Patti and Audra like a _ day _to get used to you?" 

Richie chuckled, and managed to throw Bill off. He went and put his arm around Audra's waist.

"Hey, Audra's used to me, she watches my stand up!" 

"Seeing you live is something _ entirely _ different." Eddie remarked, walking back over to the group. 

"Ah, poor Eds has to live with this every day, and he still doesn't know what's coming." Richie said, with an exaggerated pout. 

"Ew, don't do that, you look like Pen-" 

"Woah!" Richie said, clamping his hand over Eddie's mouth. "_ You almost said the P word." _He sang, as he walked across the circle and stood behind him, resting his chin on his head. 

"You know I hate it when you do that." Eddie said.

"Yeah, but I'm _ tired, _ Spageds, and B Squared isn't even _ here _yet." 

Mike looked at his watch. "Yeah, Ben said they might be a little late. Don't worry about it, they'll call soon, I bet." 

Mike pulled some chairs from the dining area into the living area, and motioned for everyone to sit down.

"I don't want to open the champagne until the whole crew is here, but I've got plenty of other stuff to drink, if you guys want." 

Richie stood up. "Yeah, man, I'll help you." 

"Ladies, white wine?"

Audra nodded. 

"I prefer red." Patti said. 

"Okay, so that's two white wines and one red, for the ladies." Richie said, with a nod.

Patti blinked, and glanced around. Eddie didn't even look at her. "He's talking about _ me." _He said, with his arms crossed. 

"Bill, Stan?" Mike called. 

"I'll have a red wine too!" Stan said. 

"Gin and tonic?" Bill asked.

"Gotcha, Big Bill!" 

Mike turned to Richie, who was pouring drinks already. "What are you gonna have, Rich?" 

"Mmm… Midori." 

Mike laughed. "Richie, I don't have Midori." 

Richie made a shocked face, then pulled a large green bottle out of the cabinet. "Then what's _ this?" _

Mike stared. "I- I don't-"

Richie laughed. "Don't get freaked out of your gourd, I snuck it in here a little while ago." 

"Jesus, Rich…" Mike said, putting a hand to his forehead. "You're going to have us all thinking we've gone insane by the end of the week, aren't you?" 

"Not plannin' on it." He said with a shrug, as he poured the Midori into a beer stein. "But if you guys can't take a few chucks as well as you used to, I hardly think that's _ my _fault!" 

Mike and Richie brought the drinks back out and served them to everyone. Richie took his seat next to Eddie on the couch, and stiffened up when Eddie leaned into his shoulder. 

Mike tried not to look at them, but- 

_ He can't handle it if it's not undercut with sarcasm, now that other people are here... _

Richie took a big gulp of Midori. Eddie sighed a little, then Richie finally reached up and put an arm around him. He still looked a bit stiff, but Eddie smiled. 

"Tonight, we induct two honorary losers!" Richie said, holding his mug up. 

"What?" Audra asked. 

Bill laughed. "That's what we used to call ourselves… The Losers' Club." 

"Oh! Oh, well that's sweet, then, Rich." 

"When are you going to turn is from a group of nine to a nice, round, ten, Mike?" Stan asked. 

Mike looked down at his drink, a little embarrassed. He shrugged. "Don't know. Never got much dating done before… I guess I'm just sort of uh- _ playing the field _right now." 

Bill beamed and Stan laughed. 

"What are you on?" Richie asked. 

"Huh?" Mike replied, looking at him in confusion. 

"Tinder, OkayCupid…" Mike didn't react. "_ Match dot com?" _Richie yelled, in disbelief. Mike rolled his eyes and laughed. 

"No." 

"Grindr?" 

"What's that?" 

Richie huffed. "These are apps, Michael! Hooking up and dating apps, for old single people like you!" 

Mike shrugged. "I don't really go in for the tech-y stuff. I've gone on blind dates, speed dates, regular dates. Just haven't found the right person yet." 

"I'm sure you will, soon enough." Bill said, with a warm smile. "You're a catch, Mike Hanlon." 

"Cheers to that!" Richie said, holding his mug up then taking another long drink from it. 

Eddie shook him a little. "Slow down, Richie, Ben and Bev aren't even here yet." He said, quietly. His eyes were crinkled up with concern. 

Richie simply nodded and put his cup down on the coffee table. 

"I won't touch it again until they get here." He said, placing a small kiss on Eddie's temple. 

"Thank you." 

When Richie turned back to the group and realized he'd become the center of attention, he turned red. 

"Ah, quit starin'!" He said, his voice wavering slightly. "You've seen gay people before! I know you all watch Modern Family!" 

This launched Audra into an incredible story about working with Jesse Tyler Ferguson that Richie was endlessly thankful for. With everyone's attention on her and her effortless name-dropping, Richie could cuddle in closer to Eddie again without anyone noticing. 

Well, anyone except Mike. 

A few good work stories cropped up after that- Patti had met Dean Koontz, Eddie had a Kardashian barfing in his back seat, Stan managed to make accounting sound interesting, somehow- 

And the doorbell rang. Mike glanced out the window before he got up. The sun had gone down by now, and the sky was an excellent purple. 

Richie checked his watch. "Damn, when Ben says late, he means it!"

Mike opened the door, and Ben and Beverly stood there with shy smiles on their faces. 

"Hey, guys." Mike said, leaning in and giving each of them a half hug. "Come on in, I'll get you some drinks." 

They walked into the living room and were greeted by a burst of hellos.

Mike was walking towards the kitchen, but Ben grabbed his shoulder and stopped him. 

"Wait, Mike… there's something we want to tell you all." 

Bev grinned up at Ben. 

"We got married." She said. They both held up their left hands to show off the gold bands. 

"What?" Mike sputtered. 

Bill shook his head. "Wait, you guys had a wedding and didn't tell us?" 

"No, no- we got eloped as soon as Bev's divorce went through. It was pretty spur-of-the-moment. And we just thought, you know, it'd be nicer to tell you all together rather than trying to make a bunch of phone calls or sending an email or something." 

"Mass text would have worked." Richie said, nonchalantly. 

Eddie jumped up to his feet and grabbed Bev's hand, looking at the ring. 

"How did you get your divorce to go through that fast?" 

Bev faltered, and Ben put an arm around her. "It's not really worth getting into…" 

Eddie looked up at Bev. "Myra is still fighting me absolutely tooth and nail on _ everything. _" 

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Eds." Bev said, putting a hand on his cheek. 

"One day she's screaming at me that she hates me and I ruined her, the next day she's crying and she wants us to _ work things out _instead…" he said, with a sigh. Richie stood up and wrapped his arms around Eddie's waist. 

"Yeah, but it's pretty sexy and sordid sleeping with a married man." He said, wiggling his eyebrows at Bev. Eddie elbowed him in the ribs and he gasped, his grip falling. 

"Geez, Eds," Richie said, holding his ribs and sitting back down. "I was trying to-" 

"It's not _ sexy, _it's stressful." He said, shuffling off into the kitchen to pour himself another glass of wine. 

Mike was pursing his lips, trying not to laugh. Last month he'd gotten a fantastic series of phone calls from Eddie and Richie after a particularly stressful meeting with Myra. Richie had managed to talk Eddie into going to a dispensary afterwards. Eddie, who had never in his life smoked _ anything _, was especially entertaining under the influence of marijuana. Richie told Mike that some of their escapades were actually going to make it into his next standup routine. 

Richie followed Eddie into the kitchen after a moment. Everyone took turns pretending to have a conversation so the others could watch them whisper to each other. They were obviously apologizing, stroking each other's hair, and grabbing each other's hands. Everyone was absolutely astounded. They were acting like adults _ towards each other. _When Richie and Eddie finally kissed, and turned back towards the group, everyone snapped to attention, looking away, but they weren't very subtle. Richie turned red and ducked down to hide behind Eddie's shoulders as they made their way back to the living room. 

"Ben, Bev, do you want anything to drink?" Mike asked. 

"Water." They said, in unison, then laughed. 

"What, do you have something _ else _to tell us?" Stan asked. 

Bev hid her face behind her hand and giggled. 

"Oh my _ God." _Bill said, with a huge grin. 

"What?" Eddie asked, blinking up at Ben. 

"Bev is pregnant." 

A flood of congratulations left everyone as they huddled around Bev in a flurry of hugs. The women lingered at her side, making short introductions and immediately asking her all sorts of questions and giggling like school girls about how handsome Ben was. 

"Are you happy to have some other ladies around, Bev?" Stan called over to them. 

Beverly smiled. "Oh, you know I love all you boys with my whole heart, but you're a bunch of idiots." She said, with a sharp laugh. 

Richie smirked. "I'll drink to that!" He said, getting up and walking over towards the women, Midori in hand. 

"Go on, don't leave me out of the girl talk. I know every lady wants a GBF." He said. Patti snorted. 

Eventually the topic settled on whether or not Richie had ever considered acting, and if he'd like to be in a rom com with Audra. Bev and Patti supported the decision wholeheartedly.

"I played straight for over thirty years, I guess I could do it again." 

In the living room, Ben, Stan, and Bill were all talking about married bliss, how wonderful their wives were, the slight culture shock of living with a woman, initially. Mike listened intently and Eddie squirmed around in his seat, but said nothing. He didn't want to spoil the mood with any recollections from his marriage. Eventually, Mike moved to sit by Eddie on the couch. He put his hand on Eddie's knee, and Eddie smiled at him, gratefully. Mike spoke softly so he wouldn't cut into the other conversation. 

"Sorry you got stuck in the middle here, Eds."

"Eh, what can I do about it?" He asked, with a shrug. 

"How are things going with you and Rich?" 

Eddie smiled, a little tired. "It's good..." He said, trailing off. The smile slowly left his face. "It's _ good. _ " He said, with more conviction, forcing the words out because they were true, they _ were, _and he hadn't sounded convincing. "I just-" he started picking at his elbow. "We go to couple's counseling. We just- both of us- we have a lot of stuff to work through, I guess." He looked deeply ashamed. 

Mike put a hand on his shoulder. "I think that's a great way to start a relationship, Eddie. I mean, I go to therapy every other week. I know Stan goes about once a month. Wouldn't be surprised if everyone else did too." 

"You really think so?" Eddie asked, looking up with his big, ever-sad eyes. 

"Yeah, Eds. We've all been through a lot of shit. It affects… everything. The way we think, act, interact with others…"

Eddie chewed his lip and nodded. "It's just- look at Bev and Ben. They're already married, they're having a kid!" He sighed in exasperation. "Richie and I have only actually been living together for three months, and all we have is… a lizard." 

Mike cracked a smile. "You have a lizard?"

Eddie laughed a little. "_ Not _ my idea. In fact, I wouldn't go near it at first. But she's grown on me, I guess." 

"Like Richie does with people." Mike added. 

Eddie chuckled. "Yeah, I guess so." 

Bill stood. "Ladies, Richie, why don't you come back over here? I want to serve the champagne and offer a toast." 

They joined the group and Bill went to the kitchen, with Mike trailing behind him. 

"Hey, I said I was gonna get it." 

"You can't carry all those glasses, Bill." 

Bill sighed, but he was still smiling. "Right as ever, Mike."

They came back with 8 glasses and a bottle of water for Bev.

Bill popped the cork off the champagne and it startled Bev, Eddie, and Patti, who all started laughing together. 

Everyone held their glasses out and Bill started to pour. 

"This... is a very important occasion." 

Richie held his finger up to shush Bill. "_ Please _ don't start toasting until my glass is full, Billiam!" 

Bill laughed and finished pouring the drinks.

"Am I good now, Rich?" 

"Perfect." He said, pulling his glass back and putting an arm around Eddie. 

"Alright." Bill said, raising his glass. "This one is for The Losers Club, and our new members." He said, putting an arm around Audra's waist. "And all the members we'll get in the future." He said, nodding towards Bev. 

They raised their glasses. 

"Here's to remembering." Bill said. 

"Cheers!" They all called, as their glasses clinked together. 

They talked and laughed for a long time, all the camaraderie of their meeting at the Chinese restaurant, but this time, there were no strings attached. There was no fear, no dread, just love, pure and radiating off of all of them, so that Patti and Audra could even feel it in the atmosphere, welcoming them, weaving around them as they became part of something enormous and cosmic. 

Everyone took their turns feeling Bev's baby bump. Richie tried telling some jokes to it, then looked disappointed. 

"It didn't kick." 

Ben laughed. "It's not old enough to kick yet, Richie."

"Any name ideas, yet?" Mike asked. 

"Uh, well…We thought of a few, we're not really sure yet." Bev answered. 

Ben put his arm around Bill's shoulder. "If it's okay with you, we were thinking our baby's middle name could be George. Regardless of gender." 

Bill got a little misty eyed and Audra grabbed his hand. "Of course. Of course you can, I'd love that." He said, hugging Ben, then Bev. 

"I love you guys so much."

"We love you too, Bill." Ben said, clapping him on the back. Bill took a big inhale and dabbed at his eyes. 

"I haven't had this much to drink in a while, guys. I think I need to head to bed." 

"It was so nice to finally meet you all." Audra said, with a beautiful smile. "Can't wait to spend more time with you tomorrow." 

Everyone bid them goodnight and they headed up the stairs. 

"Bev, you should probably get some rest, too." Ben encouraged. 

"Oh, he treats me like glass, lately." Bev said, but allowed him to walk her to the stairs, anyway. 

Stan noticed that Patti actually already was sleeping on the couch, with her head on Richie's shoulder. 

"I guess it's past Pat's bed time." He said, with a chuckle. 

"Yeah, I think she wants to share a bed with _ me, _actually, Stan-o-War." Richie said, looking down at where she'd curled her arms around his. 

Stan chuckled and shook Patti gently. When she woke up, she turned a brilliant shade of pink, embarrassed to have fallen asleep on someone she just met. Rationally. It was rational embarrassment. Because really, in her mind, she felt like she'd known all of Stan's friends for a long time. Long enough to stop calling them Stan's friends and call them her own. 

Stan helped her up and she said goodnight. 

"I'll meet you outside in an hour, hot cakes." Richie said, in a noir detective voice. "Just you, me, and the moonlight." 

She giggled and waved him off, and he dropped the voice. "Sleep well, you guys." 

The room was quiet and the air was still. Richie was comfortable again, fully enough, to wrap himself around Eddie and hold him. 

"Shouldn't we go to bed?" Eddie asked, looking up at him. 

"Nah, not yet." He said, closing his eyes and humming. After a moment, he added. "Mike has to go to bed first, I'm gonna clean up." 

"You really don't have to do that, Rich-" 

Richie opened his eyes. "Yeah, but I'm going to. And I'd be lost without Eddie helping me. He's a pro at this stuff. He's basically the ideal housewife." 

Eddie grumbled a bit, then looked at Mike. "Really, cleaning is the least we could do. We'll put Bill and Audra on cleaning duty tomorrow, don't worry." 

Mike snickered. "Okay, fine." 

Richie stood and yawned, stretching. 

"You know who I miss?" He asked, not really waiting for an answer. "I miss Gertrude." 

Eddie let out a breathy laugh as he stood, and shook his head. 

"Who's Gertrude?" Mike asked. 

"The lizard." 

"Hey!" Richie said, pointing at Eddie. "Gertrude Cheerio is not _ the lizard. _She is a blue tongued skink, and she is our beautiful and brave lesbian daughter." 

Mike grinned. "Gertrude Cheerio?" 

Eddie started to pick up the abandoned glasses. "He couldn't decide on one, so he went with both. Every Time he comes home he says, 'Cheery-o, Gertrude!' in this thick, cockney accent. He greets the lizard before he greets _ me. _"

"Well, maybe if you waited by the door for me, I'd greet you first." 

"That's where her tank is, it's not like she's a dog, running to the door to bring you your pipe and slippers!" 

Mike laughed and stood. 

"You two behave, okay? I'm headin' up to bed." 

"Alrighty, Mikey." Richie said, with a salute. 

"Sleep tight, Mike." Eddie said, with a smile. 

Mike looked at them for a moment. His heart was full. 

"I love you guys." 

"We love you too, Mike." Eddie said, leaning onto Richie's shoulder. 

"This house…" Mike said, looking around. "I've always loved it, but now..._ right _now. It really feels like home." 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cocaine jokes directed at Stephen King? yes,

Mike woke up early with a smile on his face. The pale light of dawn lit his room, and he sat up, and giggled in spite of himself. His friends were there! He felt like a kid on Christmas, waking up naturally in the early morning simply because he was excited. 

Then something occurred to him- _ the cake. _The fucking cake! He'd forgotten all about it last night. If he was lucky, it wouldn't be hard as a brick. 

He rushed down the stairs and into the kitchen, but the cake wasn't on the cooling rack. Or anywhere on the counter. Mike scratched his head and went to the fridge. The cake carrier was sitting on the middle shelf. He took the lid off and saw that the cake had been carefully frosted - _ Eddie- _ and iced on top of it in sloppy red letters - _ Richie _\- it said, "EAT UP, LOSERS!"

Mike laughed and lifted the cake out of the fridge, setting it on the dining table, then went to work. 

He started brewing coffee, warming water for tea, double and triple checking that he had milk and juice. He was frying bacon, making eggs 3 different ways, baking biscuits and (Stan's favorite) cinnamon rolls, keeping a steady rotation of toast in the toaster, and adding a southern flair to the whole thing by making gravy from scratch and boiling up some grits. It was hard work, but he loved multi-tasking. And he wanted to make sure _ everyone _had something they wanted to eat. 

Soon, he heard footsteps behind him. 

"Are you trying to fatten me up, Mikey?" 

Mike laughed and turned around just long enough to see Ben. "Hey, not all of this is _ junk. _I've got egg whites, whole wheat toast and- oh, I forgot to make the fruit salad." 

"Here, let me help." Ben said, stepping up behind him. 

"The knives are over there," he said, nodding his head towards the knife block. "Cutting board us already out, fruit is in the fridge, and serving bowls are in the cabinet to your right." 

"_ Serving bowls?" _Ben smiled. "You sure are well prepared for a bachelor." 

Mike shrugged and chuckled a little. "I like cooking and entertaining, I'd be lost without my serving bowls." 

"What are you doing up before everyone else, Ben?" Mike asked, as Ben started slicing bananas. 

"Bev talks in her sleep." He said, with a little amusement. "I don't like to mention it, because I don't want her to get embarrassed, but sometimes it's loud. It was all nonsense this morning. Something about having to get a hot dog for the Prime Minister." 

"Prime Minister of where?" 

Ben laughed at how earnestly Mike asked. "Dunno, I didn't ask." 

Ben had moved onto the grapes, when someone at the base of the stairs yawned loudly, and he looked up to see Richie stretching. 

"Hey, morning, Rich!" 

Mike turned his head. "Good morning, Richie!" 

Richie rubbed his eyes and grumbled. "Coffee. I smell coffee." 

"Ben, could you help him out with that?" 

Ben shook his head at Richie, but he was smiling as he got a mug off a hook and started to pour. 

"Cream, sugar?" 

"No cream. All the sugar." Richie said, in a gravelly voice. He looked like a zombie. 

Ben figured two spoons of sugar was enough, and handed the coffee to Richie. He was, however, wrong, because as soon as Richie took a sip, he made a disgusted face and rushed to the sugar bowl to add three more healing spoonfuls. 

"Oh, you really did mean _ all _the sugar." Ben said, with a laugh. 

Richie groaned. "Not to be the '_ don't talk to me before my coffee' _guy, but shhh." He said, holding his pointer finger out towards Ben as he took a long drink of his coffee. He swallowed loudly, then shook his head violently. 

"Okay. I'm good now. I'll be better when Eds wakes up and makes me take aspirin, but for now…" 

Richie sank into a chair at the table. "So, Mike, honestly, when are you going on Iron Chef?" He asked, marvelling at the stove top, on which every eye was in use. 

"When they want a buffet style breakfast for a bunch of New England natives. Until then…" he shrugged. 

"Man, you're really going out of your way with all this…" 

"Well, I don't have anything planned for lunch or dinner, so this is really the least I could do." 

"Mike, you're already letting us all stay at your house." Ben said. 

"And drink your booze." Richie added. 

"Really, guys, I enjoy this." Mike said, with a smile. "I haven't had anyone to cook for in a while." He started to turn off stove burners and move food to plates and bowls. He and Ben began to arrange it on the table, when Eddie came down the stairs. 

"Oh, wow…" he said, looking at all the food. "Richie didn't help at all, did he?" 

"Hey!" Richie protested. 

Eddie shuffled over sleepily and kissed him on the top of the head. 

"In his defense," Ben piped up, "he hasn't been down here very long." 

"You want some coffee, Eds?" Richie asked, as Eddie took a seat beside him. Eddie smiled. 

"Yeah. Thanks." 

Richie nodded and got up to make Eddie a cup. 

Audra and Bill walked into the kitchen, hand in hand, just like last night, and also fully dressed, unlike everyone else. 

"Good morning, everyone!" Audra said, brightly. Eddie squinted at them like it hurt his eyes. They were, sort of, literally bright, Audra dressed in all white, and Bill in a white shirt to match. 

"Something smells good!" Bill said, clapping a hand onto Mike's shoulder. 

"Mike's been up since the crack of dawn making this spread." Ben informed as he passed with a basket full of toast. 

Bill kissed Mike on the cheek. "You work too hard, man!" 

Mike played the last of the food and stuck his tongue out at Bill. "I work exactly as hard as I want to." 

Bill laughed as he and Audra took their seats. 

Stan and Patti were in the dining room shortly. 

"Oh, wow, look at those cinnamon-" 

Mike danced over and pinched Stan's cheek. "Don't think I forgot your favorite." 

Stan blushed. "You really made those for me?" 

"Yeah, man!" Mike said, giving Stan a half hug. 

"Aren't you just the sweetest?" Patti fawned. 

Mike shrugged. "Maybe so." He said, with a big smile. Everyone took their seats at the table. 

"Wait a sec, guys, I'll go get Bev." 

"No need." Bev said, from the kitchen.

Everyone bid her good morning and she waved, taking her seat by Ben. 

"Why didn't you wake me up when you got up, babe?" 

Ben blushed. "You look so pretty when you're sleeping, Bev." He said, brushing hair out of her face. 

Eddie didn't notice, but he was making an _ aww _noise. Richie looked at him then pretended to ralph.

"Oh, come on, not at breakfast, Rich." Stan scolded, playfully. 

"Easy for you to say, _ breeder!" _

Eddie swatted Richie on the arm. "Jesus!" 

But Patti was turning red laughing, and everyone was chuckling along with her. 

"Okay, okay, just go on and help yourselves to some food." Mike said, handing out paper plates. 

"What, Mike, no prayer?" Bill asked with a smirk. "What would your mother say?" 

"She'd say you got too mouthy after you lost your stutter." 

"Oh, the claws come out!" Richie whooped. Mike and Bill were laughing. 

"I'll say a quick prayer, just for you, Big Bill." Mike said, folding his hands and bowing his head. 

"Dear God," he started loudly. "Please don't let award _ nominated _author Bill Denbrough choke on his eggs. Amen." He looked up. "Was that good?" 

Bill was hiding his face because he was laughing too hard. 

Audra was giggling behind her hand. 

"Okay, now we can eat, right?" Stan asked, with a cinnamon bun half way to his mouth. Mike nodded. 

Eddie poured himself a modest glass of orange juice, and pulled out a weekly pill organizer. 

Across from him, Bev giggled, and his head snapped up. 

"What?" He asked, defensively. 

Bev pulled out an identical looking pill box, and Eddie relaxed and laughed too. 

They talked and compared vitamins while Richie rolled his eyes and looked at Ben. 

"Aw, how often are people willing to talk vitamins with him? Let him have some fun." Ben chided. 

Riche looked at Eddie out of the corner of his eyes. "He does kind of light up when he's talking about them…" 

"It's cute." Ben said, with a grin. 

Richie turned pink. "Shut up, Ben, or I might get jealous." 

Ben stifled a laugh, then decided to pick on Richie more, while he had an upper hand. 

"Hey, Eds." 

Eddie snapped out of his tangent about properly absorbing vitamins and looked at Ben. 

"Yes?" 

Ben leaned in slightly and lowered his voice. "You look absolutely stunning this morning." 

Eddie turned red. "Uh, thanks?" 

Richie scoffed. "Your wife is _ right there, _Benjamin! Eyes off my Eddie!" 

"Hey!" Eddie called. "It's fine. Look all you want, Ben." He said, embarrassed, but sort of cracking himself up at the same time. 

"Yeah, look but don't touch." Bev agreed, kissing Ben on the cheek. 

Richie leaned across the table and did his best impression of Ben's _ sexy voice. _

"Beverly, you look absolutely _ ravishing, _this morn-" 

Bev laughed and clamped his lips shut. "Okay, at least it had plausible deniability when Ben did it." She said, chuckling. 

Richie leaned back. "What's that mean?" 

Ben rolled his eyes. "Richie, I am _ bi-sex-ual." _

Richie nudged Mike with his elbow. "Are you hearing this?" 

"Uh, I'm pan." Mike said, tilting his head. 

"Okay, so why did I wait until I was in my 40s to come out?" 

Mike shrugged. 

"Ah, this is bullshit…" Richie said, grabbing a cinnamon roll. 

"Oh, hey, in _ my _defense, I didn't realize I was bi until after I left Derry." Bev added. 

"You too, Bev?" 

"And Stan." 

Stan waved from the other end of the table. 

"What?" Bill asked. 

"We're talking about who's bi." 

"We're pan." Audra said. 

"Is _ anyone _at this table straight?" 

Patti raised her hand, self consciously, then dissolved into a fit of giggles. 

"I knew I could count on you, Patti Cakes." 

She snorted, then turned back to her breakfast, embarrassed. Stan kissed her on the cheek. 

"So, when did you guys all uh, figure this stuff out?" 

He got a lot of different answers but the general consensus was the same: _ when they'd left Derry. _

Stan admitted to probably having a crush on Bill but not realizing it, and Ben and Mike laughed. Mike was nodding. Bill blushed. 

"Ah, geez…" 

"Oh, is it really that surprising?" Stan asked. "You were the coolest one, you were our leader!" 

Bev nodded in agreement. "It was like, a requirement for being in The Losers Club back then, I think." 

Bill looked at Eddie and Richie. "Was it?" 

Eddie turned red again.

"No idea what you're talking about, I only ever had eyes for Eds."

Eddie hid his face. 

"Yeah, and I thought I had a crush on Greta Keene." He said, from behind his hands. 

"_ Greta Keene?" _Bev said, in shock. "But she was such a bully- I mean, wasn't she the one who wrote 'loser' on your cast?" 

"Yes, but see also: every girlfriend I ever had and the woman I married." Eddie said, grimly.

"Aw, but now you have me." Richie said, wrapping an arm around him. 

"Who said you weren't a bully?" Eddie asked. 

"Oh! Onch!" Richie said, pulling back like he'd been burned. Eddie grabbed his hands and kissed his knuckles. 

"I'm just kidding." Eddie said, softly. "You love to tease, but you're not a bully."

"Thank you." Richie said, kissing Eddie on the cheek. 

It was Mike's turn to roll his eyes. 

"I love every last one of you, and I'm desperately happy for you all, but this is what I get for inviting a bunch of couples over to my bachelor pad." 

"Ah, shut up and eat your grits." Richie said, waving him off. "I waited a good 27 years for this." 

"Oh, that's so sweet…" Patti said, hand over her heart. 

"I swear, Patti, you are my only ally." Richie said, winking at her. 

"Hey, I waited 27 years for this, too!" Ben said, putting his arm around Bev.

"Oh my gosh, really?" Patti exclaimed. "The two of you are such hopeless romantics, aren't you?" 

"He really is." Bev and Eddie said in unison, staring at their partners. 

Their eyes opened wide and they turned to look at each other. "Jinx, you owe me a Coke!" They said, in unison again. Bev was so startled that she started to laugh. 

"Double jinx!" Eddie called, triumphantly. 

"What do I owe on a double jinx?" 

"Now that we're adults, I say it's a rum and Coke. Or maybe cocaine." Richie said, with a shrug. 

"Where am I going to get cocaine from?" 

"I've probably got connections. Bill, too." 

Eddie pushed Richie a little. "You better not have any cocaine connections." 

"Eds, I'm already _ legally _ taking uppers, I don't want my heart to explode. I said I _ had _ connections, not that I'm using them. We live in LA! And as if all your insurance business buddies in New York didn't do cocaine, _ I've seen American Psycho." _

"Richie, that was about Wall Street guys in the 80s."

"Wait, wait," Bill said from the other side of the table. "Am I allowed to defend myself against these accusations?" 

Richie shook his head. "You're an author and screenwriter, Audra is an actress, you two have definitely been in the presence of cocaine _ recently. _" 

Audra giggled. "He makes a good point."

Bill nodded and sighed. "Alright, fine. But we haven't done any." 

Richie raised an eyebrow and Bill slumped down in his chair. 

"Recently." Bill conceded. 

Richie grinned. "I _ knew it. _I knew it! It was during that book about uh-" Richie screwed his eyes up and snapped a few times, trying to remember. "That book about the fucking aliens, wasn't it? There's no way a sober person wrote that!" 

Audra put an arm around Bill and started rubbing his shoulder. 

"Yeah, I had a little problem in my twenties." 

"Oh my God, Bill Denbrough, you really-" 

"Beep beep, Richie." Bev said, kicking him under the table. 

"_ Jesus _. Alright!" He took a sip of Eddie's orange juice and Eddie frowned. "Who among us hasn't had substance abuse problems, am I right?" 

Patti looked at Stan worriedly, and Audra played with her food. As much as they felt like they were part of the group, like they belonged in the camaraderie, there was still that one, _ big _thing. The thing that had happened back in Derry that was apparently beyond explanation. The big trauma that tied The Losers Club together with a bow. It was something both of them worried about privately, but after enough attempts to get the truth, they didn't bother asking anymore. 

Bev cleared her throat. "Uh, does anyone have plans for after breakfast?" 

"I was gonna go sit on the dock." Richie said, apparently unaware of the awkward aura he'd sent out into the room. 

"That sounds nice, I'll come with you." Bev said, with a smile. 

"I uh, thought I might go to some souvenir stores. I love knick knacks and novelty stuff." Patti said. 

"Bill and I can go with you!" Audra said, brightly. Bill nodded. "I want to buy something shaped like a seagull." He said, with a laugh. 

"What about you, Stan, you coming with?" Bill asked. 

"Actually, I thought I might go for a walk on the beach." 

"Yeah, the weather's supposed to be nice today, Stan, I'll go with you if you don't mind." Mike said.

"I'd love the company." Stan said, with a smile. 

"Eddie? Ben?" Bev asked, looking between them. 

"I'm… I don't-" Eddie took a deep breath like he was trying to gather his courage. "I'm taking it easy today. Resting. Traveling takes a lot out of me." 

"In other words, he has a date with a glass of Emergen-C." Richie added. 

"Well…" Ben started. "Do you want to watch a movie with me? I could stand a day in, too. I'm a little beat from getting the boat here." 

Eddie smiled. "Yeah, that sounds nice, Ben." 

"If I come back and you two are making out-" Richie said, pointing at Ben. 

Ben laughed. "Oh, like we'd _ get caught." _

Eddie was getting progressively redder and Ben decided to drop the joke. "I am a happily married man, Trashmouth. I'm not about to move in on your territory." 

"You _ better _not." Richie said, wrapping his arms around Eddie's head and hugging it to his chest. 

"Oh my God, Richie…" Eddie said, rolling his eyes. 

  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone gets ready for the day, and heads their seperate ways. Ben and Eddie sit down to watch a movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YO it's ya boy Kirby back with a nee chapter. I couldn't actually come up with a chapter summary uhh... I had fun writing this chapter because it had everyone in it, but also because I got to write (what i think is) a really sweet scene between Ben & Eddie. Thanks for reading!

When everyone was uncomfortably full from all the delicious food, they all went to go get dressed and prepare for the day, except for Bill and Audra, who stayed behind to clean up. 

Whether Richie had actually told them they were on cleaning duty or not, Mike didn't know, but they insisted they didn't need help, so he went upstairs to get ready for the day.

Bill hummed as he scrubbed the pans, working happily and smiling at the view out the kitchen window. 

"We should live on a beach." Audra said, dreamily. 

"Maybe someday soon, we will." 

"What are you humming, Bill?" 

Bill chuckled. "You don't know it? It's Tainted Love by Soft Cell. It was one of Stan's favorites when we were in school. I hardly ever think about that song, but seeing Stan again, it's stuck in my head." 

Audra smiled. "Oh, I think I do know the song you're talking about." She started trying to hum along with Bill. "One of the gals sang that last time we went out for karaoke, I think." She said, as she loaded more plates in the dishwasher. 

"Yeah? Like my dad would say,  it's a real groove." 

Audra laughed and Bill smiled at her. His voice in adulthood was free of the burden of a stutter or an accent, but Audra always enjoyed his impression of his father's deeply North Eastern voice and strange turns of phrase. 

Patti skipped down the stairs, singing. 

"-run away, I've got to-" she stopped and clapped twice, banging her head for emphasis. "Get away!" 

She turned and saw Bill and Audra in the kitchen and blushed a little. "Oh!" She hid her mouth behind her hand and giggled. "Don't mind me!" She said, making a shooing motion. "Do you guys need any help?" 

"Nah, we're almost done." Audra said, with a smile. "Sounds like you've got the same song stuck in your head that Bill does." 

"Really? What are the odds, I wonder." She asked, tilting her head to sincerely give it a bit of thought. She shrugged. "Maybe one of us was singing it earlier." She said, with a shrug. 

Bill grinned. That  was  possible, it was entirely possible she heard him humming it from upstairs, sure. But maybe she and Audra were offically part of The Losers Club, and were feeling the stupid and strange cosmic benefits.

"Alright, Ladies." Bill said, kicking the dishwasher closed. "Rock, paper, scissors on who has to drive?" 

Audra laughed. "There is  no way I am driving! I technically have a license, yes, but I haven't actually driven in  years! " 

Bill chuckled. "Alright, Red, you're pardoned. This is between me and Mrs. Blum-Uris!" 

Patti's bright red lips curled into a huge smile as she walked over. "Can't wait to tell everyone back in Atlanta that I beat  Bill Denbrough at Rock, Paper, Scissors." 

They all laughed. "You sound very confident, Patti, but you've never faced off against  me  before." He said, lifting up a hand and cradling his fist in it. 

"And you don't know anything about me, Bill!" Patti said, doing the same. "Audra, will you do the honors?" 

Audra blinked. "Oh, okay. Go on 'shoot', alright? Paper, Rock, Scissors, shoot!" 

Bill's hand hovered in the air, straight and unmoving, and Patti's grin grew wider into her eyes as he realized her fingers were sticking out to mimic a pair of scissors. 

"Oh, damn!" Bill called, as Patti and Audra hugged and cheered. 

Stan walked down the stairs, looking like his father in his Hawaiian shirt and tan cardigan with the sleeves pushed up. 

"What's going on down here?" He asked, cheerfully. 

"Patti just beat Bill at Paper, Rock, Scissors!" 

Stan faked a grimace. "Oh, I could have told you that was a bad idea, Big Bill. She  always  wins." 

Patti grinned triumphantly. "Always." She added, with a little wink.

Bill shook his head. "No, no… statistically, you'd have to lose at least half the time." 

"But I don't!" She said, bouncing happily up onto her toes. 

"Sure, sure. I'll believe it when I see it." 

"Better not test her, Bill, or you'll be here all afternoon." Stan remarked. He hugged his wife. 

"Y'all have fun today, okay?" 

Bill laughed. " Y'all?" 

Stan shook his head. "Hey, I've been living in Georgia longer than I ever lived in Maine. You pick stuff up." 

"Are you  serious?"  Eddie yelled, chasing Richie down the stairs. They both crashed into the group of people in front of them, but that didn't stop Richie. He kept walking, making exaggerated kissy faces at his phone. Eddie couldn't manage to push past anyone in time to catch Richie before he was out the front door. 

Stan patted him on the shoulder. "What's up, Eds?" 

"Richie Tozier gave his assistant a fucking key to our apartment so he could FaceTime his god damn lizard!" 

Patti shrieked with delight and everyone else laughed. 

"Seriously?" Audra asked, hand over her mouth. 

Eddie huffed and crossed his arms, his face red. "Yes, seriously." Eddie stood there, tapping his foot impatiently for a moment, before walking into the living room to take a seat on the couch. "I swear to  God…"  he said, massaging his temples. 

Ben came down the stairs shortly after. 

"Hey, don't start without me, Eds!" He called, rushing into the living room and taking a seat in the big armchair.

Eddie sighed, then opened his eyes and smiled at Ben. "Wouldn't dream of it, buddy." 

Bill, Audra, and Patti made their way for the door. Bill waved. "See  y'all  later!" He said, grandly. Stan laughed. 

"Bye, you guys!" Ben said, waving back. 

They nearly ran over Richie on the way out the door, who was laying on the front stoop, talking in a baby voice to his phone.

"Who's the cutesy-wootsey-est of all time? Who's- HEY-" His voice lowered back to its normal pitch and he snapped to attention as Patti gave him a light kick in the shoulder. 

"Go kiss your boyfriend." Patti said, sticking her tongue out at him. 

"I will when I'm done talking to my daughter!" He whined. 

"Can you be done?" A voice asked, from the phone. 

"Hey, you're getting paid for this, aren't you?" 

"Yeah, bu-" 

"Ah, whatever. You can hang up now, James." 

"Goodbye, Mr. Tozier." 

"Yeah, caio." Richie said, saluting him. 

He hung up and pocketed his phone. "Maybe someday when you're parents, you'll understand!" He said, standing a sulking back into the house. 

Bev was sitting in Ben's lap, and they were both talking to Eddie. Richie collapsed onto the couch, and out his head in Eddie's lap. 

"Edward, darling, please don't be mad at me." He said, poking his bottom lip out into a pout. 

"I won't, as long as James can come feed Gertrude next time you leave me home alone." 

"What?" Richie asked, sitting up. "I thought you were getting used to her!" 

"Not fast enough, I guess." Eddie said, not looking at him. 

Richie sighed. "Alright, fine. As long as you're not mad at me, that's fine!" Richie said, putting a hand on Eddie's cheek. 

"If it's fine, then I'm not mad." Eddie said, putting his hand over Richie's. 

"Mmm, good!" Richie stood and gave Eddie a peck on the forehead, then took Bev's hand. 

"Beverly, I believe you and I have some sitting-on-a-dock to do!" 

"Alright, Richie." 

"Don't forget to put on sunscreen!" Eddie called. 

"Oh, we sure won't!" Richie said, without even pausing his stride. 

Eddie rolled his eyes. 

"So, what are we going to watch, Ben?" 

"I, uh-" Ben was reaching to pick up the remote when they heard Stan singing in the kitchen. 

Stan, the apparent cosmic cause of the ear worm, had caught it himself. " You don't really want any more from me-" 

Eddie grinned. "Stanley!" He called. Stan ducked in surprise, then turned around. 

"Oh, hey, guys!" 

Ben laughed. "Gosh, you used to play that song all the time." 

Stan shrugged. "It's catchy. I tried to get Pats to let me play it at our wedding, but she didn't think it fit the mood." 

"Reasonable." Eddie said. "I wouldn't let Richie get away with something like that, to be honest." 

Stan tilted his head. "Yeah, I get it, the lyrics don't exactly match promising to spend your whole life with someone. But it's still a good song." 

Mike came down the stairs. "Stan the Man, you ready to walk?" 

"Absolutely!" Stan said, grinning and following Mike out the back door. "See y'all later!" He said, with a wave. 

Eddie and Ben waved back. The house was superbly quiet, now. Eddie closed his eyes and sighed, sinking into the couch. "Man, this is the calmest the atmosphere around me has been since-" after a moment, he opened one eye. "Actually, I don't remember." 

"Yeah, it's nice. Maybe we can just sit like this for a minute?" 

"Yeah, absolutely." Eddie agreed. He took in a deep breath, and closed his eyes again. 

The light caught on his cheek, white tendrils of scar tissue radiating from a spot in the middle. Ben frowned. He wondered if that bothered Eddie, the way his own scar from Bowers bothered him. He kept staring, so caught up in it that he didn't notice Eddie had opened his eyes. 

After realizing that Ben wasn't going to snap out of it on his own, Eddie's hand crept up to his cheek, to make a mental inventory of the scarring. Sometimes he genuinely forgot it was there. 

When Eddie's fingers obstructed his view, Ben's eyes snapped to Eddie's. Eddie looked self-conscious and over-aware. Almost paranoid. 

"Oh… fuck, I'm sorry, Eddie." 

Eddie sat up and sighed. "It-it's okay, Ben." He said, lowering his hand. He folded it into his other one and placed them on his lap. His foot swung through the air in an erratic rhythm. 

Ben took in a deep breath, then started to untuck his shirt. 

"Ben, what are you doing?" Eddie asked. 

"Fair's fair." He said, slowly drawing up his shirt and exposing the jagged H on his lower abdomen. 

Eddie sucked a breath in through his teeth and cringed. "Really, it's okay, Ben." He said, throwing up his hands to show his view.

Ben dropped the shirt and shook his head. "You know, for all the things in Derry that were fucked up on a supernatural level, I think Henry would have been like that either way." 

Eddie considered this for a second, then nodded. "Probably. Maybe not as bad, but-" 

Ben shrugged. "Maybe just as bad. We'll never know." 

Eddie frowned. "Why do you think- I mean out of everyone, why us? Why do you think it's us with the physical evidence?" 

Ben shook his head. "I really don't know. I know Bowers blamed me for getting his ass stuck in summer school. But you, I don't-" 

Eddie blinked. "I'm just glad- I mean, remember what Mike said about his dog? And… well, I know he meant to do worse to me than this, so I guess I'm lucky." 

"You don't have to think about it like that." Ben said, sadly. 

"I kind of do. If I don't, it just gets overwhelming. I mean, honestly, the fact that any of us are alive is a miracle. The fact that-that the only physical scars we ended up with are because of  Bowers?  That's beyond a miracle." 

Ben nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess so. And I didn't even- get mine last year. Gosh, that means you're the only one with a scar from the last fight." 

Eddie shrugged. "Well, I wasn't, but then when Pennywise died, everything disappeared with him." 

"What do you mean?" 

Eddie frowned. "Richie had all these cuts on his scalp, I guess you weren't there when it happened…" Eddie said, thinking of the large, arachnid thing that had apparently looked different to them all. Eddie had seen his mother and been frozen in fear. Richie said it had looked like his father, with razor sharp teeth. Bill had seen Audra. It struck some sort of guilty cord with each of them. Oh course, Eddie's was always his mother… 

Eddie felt a tear streak down his cheek, and turned red. He just kept talking, trying to ignore it. "But, he got attacked by something, some facsimile of It, and it had all these-" Eddie stuck his fingers out and curled them. "All these spindly legs that ended with claws, and they sunk into Richie's skin, and I figured those marks were going to be there forever, but we checked later, back at the Inn, and they were gone. The blood was still there, but the cuts were just gone." 

"Wow." Ben said, breathlessly. "That's nuts." 

"I'm so glad, Ben." Eddie said, tearing up more. "I'm so glad I never have to look at them and think about what I did." 

"What do you mean, Eddie? What you did? I don't understand." 

Ben was out of his chair and on the couch next to Eddie now. He watched as Eddie shook his head and covered his face. Ben wrapped an arm around Eddie's shoulders. 

"Eddie, what's wrong?" 

"I was just going to let him die." Eddie finally got out, just barely, in a high pitched sob. "It was on him and I could have helped him, but I didn't." He uncovered his face to look Ben in the eyes. "How can he even stand to be around me, after that? How can he even pretend to trust me?" 

Ben hugged Eddie. "I don't think he's pretending. He really does trust you, Eds." 

"Why would he do that? If it was- if Bev had let that happen to you, could you ever forgive her?" 

Ben settled back and looked at Eddie, who was peeking up at him between his fingers. His huge, dark eyes were terrified. 

"Yes, I could. Moreover, I would. Because I love her and I know she loves me, and what happened to us in Derry is horrible, but-" 

"But?" Eddie asked, lifting his head. "But what? Because for me? F-for me…" He said, holding a hand over his heart, "It showed me who I really am."

Ben nodded. "It showed me who you really are, too."

Eddie looked hurt, then nodded. "Yeah…" 

"No, Eddie. Because who saved Richie from the deadlights, in the end? Who was that? That was all you, Eds." 

Eddie looked at him. "Was it enough?" He asked, in a hoarse whisper.

Ben blinked a few tears out. "Of course it was, Eddie." He said, hugging Eddie to his chest. "Of course." 

Ben held Eddie close and started to rub his hair. That always calmed him down when they were younger. 

"Eddie, if he didn't want to be with you, then he wouldn't, okay? He's with you because he wants to be." 

"But it's so hard." 

"I know. I know it is. It's hard with Bev, too. I feel like I never did enough for her then, because I was too consumed with my own feelings, and I feel like I'll never be able to do enough for her now, but you know what? She loves me. She really does. She loves me and we're happy together, even though it's hard. Even when she cries in her sleep, and I just sit there knowing the best I can do is wake her up, and even then… even then, maybe she was just dreaming memories and I can't make those go away." 

"No… they don't go away, do they?" 

"Not the right ones. Not when we want them to." 

Eddie sniffed. "You're - you're a good friend, Ben. The best. I don't know how I managed those years without you." Eddie said, sniffing and reaching for a tissue from the side table. 

"I dunno how I made it without you, either, Eds. It was lonely." 

"Even with all that money?" Eddie asked, cracking a smile. 

"Did you know you can't even swim in it? Cartoons lied to us, Eddie." 

Eddie laughed a little. "Thanks, Ben. Really, thank you. I mean… Richie and I go to therapy and stuff, we try to work things out, but there are certain things I can't like,  bring up,  you know?" 

"Yeah. One hundred percent."

Ben sighed and sat back. "What say you we watch something really stupid to take our minds off of uh… everything?" 

"I'd like that." 

Ben reached for the remote and flicked the TV on, then started scrolling through movies. 

"I'm thinking something from the nineties with no brains." 

"Right on the money, Hanscom!" 

Ben selected  Black Sheep. 

"I don't think I've seen this one before." Eddie said, tilting his head. 

"Oh it's good. It's just really simple, but it's nice. It always gets a laugh out of me." 

Eddie grinned, the corners of his eyes crinkling. 

"Aw, Eds, you're adorable when you smile!" Ben said, pulling him down into a noogie. 

"Hey, hey!" Eddie laughed, trying to get out if Ben's grasp. "You know I hate this!" He said, still sounding cheerful. 

"And yet you've chosen to date Richie Tozier, the most notorious noogie-giver I've ever met!" Ben said, releasing him. His hair stuck up in odd places. 

"Well… maybe I think it's cute when he does it." 

"Oh, that's so sweet, Eds, you're gonna make me puke!" 

"Go ahead! As if you and Bev aren't giving me cavities with how stupidly sweet you are!" Eddie said, shoving Ben slightly. 

"We are cute, aren't we?" Ben mused. "Our baby is going to be fucking adorable." 

"Gosh… I'm going to die if it comes out a red head!" 

"Why?" Ben laughed. 

"A red headed  baby?"  Eddie balked. "That's kind of creepy, don't you think?" 

"Nah. This isn't Village of the Damned. Also, those babies were blonde."

"Same thing." 

Ben laughed. "Don't tell me my baby is going to be creepy, Kaspbrak, that's so middle school!" 

"Well, I did meet you when I was 12, maybe our relationship hasn't matured since then." 

"Yeah, or maybe  you  haven't!" Ben said with a laugh, pushing one of Eddie's shoulders. 

"Shut up, Ben. This might be my only chance this year to watch a movie without someone talking through the whole thing!" 

Ben laughed and mimed zipping his lips. Eddie grinned. 

"Thanks, Ben." 

Ben nodded. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, ya made it! Next chapter is Stan and Mike hanging out on the beach. And i AM taking suggestions if you really want them to talk about something specific. And even if you don't... A comment would still be AWESOME! it would totally make my day. It could literally just be like "hey" and I'll die of happiness. 
> 
> Also Patti has The Shining because I said so. In case some of that didn't make sense. I mean, it will come into play later but just- know that now. Thats why she always wins.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Hope you enjoyed it! Big thanks to The5thRoommate for letting me talk about The Losers and helping me with so many amazing ideas (like Gertrude). Hopefully from here I can get into some stories that really get into individual characterization, but golly, I just wanted them to all be together.
> 
> (I'm sorry there's more focus on Richie and Eddie's relationship than anyone else's but I'm weak and gay)


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